


The Icewing Execution.

by The_Silver_Dragon



Category: Wings of Fire - Tui T. Sutherland
Genre: Animus magic, Deathfic, First work on ao3, Gen, Icewing, Multiple Deaths, Oneshot, Sad, before darkstalker, serious tone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2020-03-02 06:29:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18805606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Silver_Dragon/pseuds/The_Silver_Dragon
Summary: Cloudburst, animus killer of the Icewings, is a loyal solider and has been for the past centuries, until he has to decide where his loyalties lay after a secret comes to light.





	The Icewing Execution.

  
Silence awaited Cloudburst. The silence of sound, of mind, and of death.

  


A storm rose in the north, clouds of white wrapping around black high up in the sky. Wisps of clouds like jagged lines of snow lay in a sharp blue sky, with the sun cheerfully blinding everything. 

  


Cloudburst waded through the snow, following a series of posts linked by ice. He glanced at the storm clouds rolling towards him. He inhaled and exhaled over the snow. A shimmer grew over the surface until he stopped for a breath. 

  


He jumped onto the fragile ice and strolled above the deep snow peacefully for a while.  


The landscape sloped gently to the left into a plain. The plain stretched for many days of flight, but it wasn’t that wide. The blue-grey mountains and valleys tore up the snow at the horizon.  


To his right lay the cliff, the Great Ice cliff that ran for miles and was the border of the kingdom. The land after it was what both Icewings and the Sandwings declared the wastes. A barren area too cold for plants, but still warm enough for dragons to enter. The eastern horizon stretched uninterrupted by mountains for half the sky.  


He breathed over the ice again, creating a path over the snow to his destination— the weather relay. 

  


The building itself was unadorned, made from a light grey rock. It had four floors so snow couldn’t block the relay, and the top only had a roof with glass walls.

  


Cloudburst walked to the door, watching the windows. A shadow shifted at one and disappeared.

  


Cloudburst knocked on the door. Scrapes came from inside, and then the hermit’s face appeared. He grinned. “Storm?” 

  


Cloudburst nodded. “Send the signal.”  


The hermit closed the door. Cloudburst walked a fair distance from the tower and checked the relay. The fire was lit, and with the large mirror next to it, the hermit could signal anyone who knew the code. The hermit did his job and the kingdom would stop all flights until the storm passed.

  


Job finished, Cloudburst let his mind wander over the things left to do. Fish, he thought. He needed to bring in the frozen fishes in case the storm lasted too long. He turned around and retraced his steps across the frozen tundra.

  


==== 

  


The storm raged.

  


Wind lashed at the door in waves, shaking the ice block of a door. A few snowflakes managed to sneak in through the cracks at first, but with a light frost breath the ice sealed the door. Any other outpost wouldn’t have done this for fear of suffocating, but they had a chimney. The wind often sent small gusts down the chimney into the fire and caused smoke to puff into the snouts of dragons nearby.

  


The reason they even had a fire was for smoke signals or to make frozen fish edible. As much as they were called Icewings, they couldn’t bite through a chunk of frozen fish.

  


Cloudburst sat by the fire and stared into the pot, waiting for the fish to cook. He poked the fish floating in the pot and felt the flesh weaken. He hooked it with a claw and bit it. He hooked the other one, let it drip for a moment, and then held it out to his partner. 

  


The Icewing took it and chewed numbly. He stared at the fire in the sort of state when one has just woken but their mind hasn’t realized that.  


Cloudburst stared at the pot again, as if staring at it for a long enough time might shorten the wait. He didn’t mind the storm or the wait. He didn’t have to listen to the chatter, to have to think about what might be happening, or how he would be judged. He simply had peace.

  


The Icewing swallowed the last bit of the fish and said, “I heard that something happened at the palace. No one knows what, and the queen’s furious.”

  


The flames licked the air, warming their scales. The heat made his scales uncomfortable, but Cloudburst didn’t mind at the moment. At least they didn’t have to eat frozen fish.

  


The guard said, “What do you think happened?”  


“Someone displeased her,” Cloudburst said.  


“Like who?” The Icewing pondered out loud. 

  


Cloudburst glanced at the guard. “I don’t know.”

  


“What if she needs our help?” The soldier straightened. “We’re just stuck here unable to help her—”

  


“Unless you’re part Nightwing, I doubt you’ll be able to figure out what’s wrong.” Cloudburst leaned close to the ground and curled his tail next to him. “When did you even hear about this?”

  


“Over at another outpost closer to the palace. They just heard word about it before I left.”

  


Cloudburst turned his head to the side. Why couldn’t he just shut up and leave Cloudburst to silence? “I’m sure it will be over when we get out of this storm.”

The door swung open and a blast of snow flew in. The door slammed and a messenger stood in the room. He shook out the snow that collected in his spines and dug out of his bag that hung on his side a scroll. He handed it to Cloudburst.

  


The messenger went to a corner and sat down, shaking more snow from his spines before laying down to sleep.

  
Cloudburst flicked a claw through the royal seal, and let the scroll roll out. 

  


‘ By order of her majesty Queen Hoarfrost, 

  


Caribou has left the tribe. Track her down, kill her, and bring back the traitor’s head. She is sentenced for the highest treason, of attempting to escape using animus magic .’

  


For a second his heart beat fast. He thought it would say exactly what he’d been waiting for weeks to hear. Except it was her name, he realized, and he relaxed. He wondered what spell she had cast and why she had done it against tradition.

  


Then he remembered that it wasn’t his job to ask that.

  


Cloudburst rolled the scroll tightly and laid it by the messenger. 

  


The guard, who had peered over Cloudburst’s shoulder to read the scroll, resumed proper stance. He nodded respectfully. “Duty?”

  


“Yes.” Cloudburst opened the door.

  


Snow blew into his eyes and the land beyond had turned to night with white flickers of snow. Cloudburst stepped out into the blizzard and snapped open his wings. The wind buffeted him and tried to throw him to the side but he ignored it. He made his way to the edge of the great Ice cliff, sensing where it was with his two animus touched bracers. The wind pushed at him, trying to throw him off the cliff and break his wings.

  


He hissed and the wind paused. He opened his wings and leapt forward. His tail skirted the cliff for a second and then he hung above a void. Wind rushed past his wings like he was flying even though it felt like he was suspended above the void. 

  


The void slowly turned to grey distant land beneath him as the magic worked to clear his sight. It turned out to be a pointless use of the magic since he left the main storm and flew through the outskirts of it. Blue skies and sunlight lay beyond the dark towering clouds above him. 

  


He passed over the wasteland of barren rock with a mix of sand and snow on top. It turned to white brush, and the white brush to leaf-less trees. The storm cloud was past him now, a line of massive black roiling clouds. Interestingly enough, the storm was focused on the Ice 

Kingdom. How convenient.

  


The magic buzzed in his claws and he glided near the treetops. He knew she was close, somewhere on the forest floor. No matter what spell she used to hide he would find her.

  


He landed on the ground, snow flying up around him. He tucked his wings back and gazed around.

  


White spread out in all directions, with the silver iced bark of the trees interspersed between the snow. The bare branches hid little of the clear sea ice sky.

  


His magic tingled again and he started to trot through the woods. He came to a trail of footsteps in the snow and started running. Snow flew up in a powder behind him.

  


A grey form appeared in the forest. She flickered through the trees, glancing behind time to time. She sped up. He followed easily, wings half open in case she decided to break through the canopy.

  


His feet pounded the ground and flung the snow behind him. She bolted away. He matched her speed and gained on her. She glanced back and spun to face him. She snarled and half opened her wings, tail lashing back and forth.

  


He stopped himself from crashing into her. Just because she couldn’t hurt him by magic didn’t mean there weren’t other ways to cause trouble. He watched her carefully and sensed for magic.

  


She stared at him, the snarling gone. “You can’t kill me.”

  


“You committed high treason.” He stepped forward once.

  


She shuffled back. “I know you aren’t blind, you have to see what the queen is. She’s mad! Her whole family is!”

  


He narrowed his eyes. “She is our queen, she knows best.”

  


Caribou crouched back like some wounded animal. She scoffed. “You—you soldier!”

  


“Thank you.” 

  


“That wasn’t—” she growled, “I should have known you’d be like this. You’ve always been a soldier, no matter what order.”

  


She stepped back and he spotted the tree behind her. He didn’t sense any magic yet, but he didn’t want to engage her now. He’d taught her a few tricks when battling animi and if caught off guard she might harm him. Best to wait until he cornered her at the tree. If she didn’t, he’d had to do it the rough way.

  
She stared up at him with eyebrows drawn together. “Why can’t you just take my magic away and let me be banished?”

  


“You know the queen's orders.” He stepped forward, talons sinking into the light layer of snow.

  


She backed into a tree and tensed as she realized what it meant. She swallowed. She stood taller and tried to hide the trembling from her jaw, “You’ll see. You’ll see. And you will thank me when—”

  


He cut her throat. 

  


A line of blue appeared like he drew across her neck with blue ink, and then blood flowed out, running down the scales like a mini waterfall. She collapsed to the side and choked quietly for a second, eyes wide and staring off, before going silent. A spray of blood covered the snow and a blue strain grew beneath the animus.

  


Cloudburst bowed his head to the body.

  


He taught her about animus magic for the last five years. He had answered her questions and comforted her worries as she tried to pick the right spell for her seventh hatching day. And during that time, she reminded him much of his daughter. He could have let her run away, let her experience the other ‘cultures’, perhaps meet his daughter if the spell he cast allowed.

  


But he had his duty, and his queen needed a head.

  


====

  


Branches snapped as the Icewings landed. Six of them stood before him, one a different messenger than the one from the outpost, and the rest guards.

  


Cloudburst cut through the bone of the spine with the silver blade from the bracer. The head rolled to the side and he stuffed it into the bag he summoned. Most animi never thought about enchanting something to summon a bag for them. They thought about the more ‘special’ things it should be used for. He was just glad that in the months leading up to his hatching day, he had included the bag enchantment.

  


He strapped the bag to his side and turned to the guards. “I have her.”

  


“That isn’t why we are here.” The messenger swallowed and looked like he would rather not talk Cloudburst.

  
The messenger’s claws scrambled at the bag at his side, eyes never leaving Cloudburst, and took out a scroll. His eyes flicked back and forth between the scroll and Cloudburst. The messenger cleared his throat and said, “By orders of the queen, you are to be taken back to the palace for execution.”

  


So she finally found out, he thought. He didn’t think it’d take her so long. When Caribou committed treason it must have distracted her from her weekly look into the list that noted every single use of animus magic.

  


The guards watched him, prepared to fight him even though it would have been a pointless fight. The messenger watched him, trembling as he thought of the worst. 

  


This is it, Cloudburst realized. This is what he’d been waiting for. Ever since his daughter left, ever since he cast that treasonous spell.

  


He could still leave. Even if the queen broke the failsafe now and took away all his enchantments, he still had decades of experience. He could find a place to lay low, offer his services to the other queens, or just disappear into the wild. He could look for his daughter, he could try to find her wherever she was. She always wanted to go to the forests to study the trees that Frostbite once walked amongst and see the flowers and other creatures. 

  


He stared at the ground.

  


It would be a lie. His spell had hidden her from every Icewing, and that included him too. If the queen knew that he could find her, she would use him to find his daughter to make sure her rule was completely enforced.

  


And what kind of dragon would he be if he disobeyed her majesty?

  


Cloudburst nodded at them. “Chain me.”

  


The guards immediately brought out the chains from the bags they carried and clamped them on him. The messenger blankly stared at Cloudburst for a few moments, frowned, and then shook himself and said to the guards, “Let’s go.”

  


They rose to the air in a thunder of wing-beats and then set out to the cloudy skies by the Ice Kingdom. The messenger was obviously relieved, yet the soldiers knew better.

  


Once in the past, an animus had been taken all the way to the palace without a fight. And he would have killed everyone if Cloudburst didn’t arrive in time to kill him.

  


At least the queen had different failsafe this time.

  


====

  


The storm was nearly past as he flew down to the palace. The sky hung a wet grey like the storm wished to snow more but now must go away. In the dark, the palace would shine a million shades of blue and green. Yet all he could see was dull white ice and shadows, and the faint blue glows from the orbs. 

  


The guards didn’t even bother to take him through the front gate. They flew right over the carved front gates of their home, over curved palace walls, past the towers of ice and into the circular courtyard. The queen stood on the balcony above the ranking wall, watching him with guarded eyes. Her brother stood beside her, his scales tinted a cobalt blue.

  
Snow blew up into wild directions as Cloudburst and the guards landed on the ground. Circles of ice bricks covered in snow paved the yard. In four different places in the courtyard grew trees that gave the Icewings their light, and in front of Cloudburst was one of the most important walls in the kingdom, the ranking wall.

  


Concentric circles, seven in all, laid in silver and imprinted into the ice. And written on them was the name of every dragon that lived in the Ice Kingdom. 

  


Except for his daughter’s name.

  


No one else stood in the yard, all away in case Cloudburst tried to kill them. He still could. With a word and they’d all be dead. Except for the queen, but who would she be queen of?

  


Truthfully, they had nothing to fear. But why trust the traitor?

  


The queen walked up to the ice carved rails of the balcony, her gaze boring into Cloudburst as if she expected him to suddenly renounce everything and beg for mercy once he saw her. Her scales were a perfect blend of white and blue that colored her scales like the sky meeting the snow. No scars marred her, her snout curved down elegantly, and the simple golden chain necklace completed her look.

  


Her brother followed along her side. His looks weren’t as refined as his sister’s, his scales having a more bluish quality of the dark ocean and his scales sharper like shale. 

  


He took his place beside his sister, brought out a scroll, and rolled it out, “Cloudburst, son of Lemming, Father of Sleet, Animus Killer of the Icewing kingdom, you have been found guilty of high treason. You have committed the crime of doing two spells instead of one. The nature of this spell affects the Ice Kingdom and the queen’s order negatively, thus an attack on all of the Ice Kingdom. Punishment for the crime is execution.”

  


“Wait.” The queen spoke to Cloudburst. "Will you undo the spell you made?”

  


“I’m treasonous my queen, how can you trust me?”

  


She tilted her head, and then jumped over the balcony and glided down to him. She walked up to him in two quick steps and whispered in his ear. “Will you cast a spell for me?”

  


She was queen, her word was law, but he had already broken the sacred rules. But he couldn’t disobey her. He had already disobeyed her, so why not again? He was a traitor to her. He had undermined her, and now he had the chance for her to forgive him?

  


His eyes trailed up to the ranking wall. He stared at the names of dragons etched in silver in all the ranks. The queen at the very top, along with her brother, and then below was Cloudburst.

  


The queen pressed closer. “You would do it for your kingdom, won’t you?”

  


The dragons he had sworn for centuries to protect. The lives he had to take in the name of his people and his queen. Caribou, his second apprentice, the mad animus who ravaged the palace before, all dead for his kingdom. But the queen or kingdom? What rules should he follow? She was telling him to break the laws, but at the same time, she created the laws.

  


She said, “Why do you hesitant now? You’ve never thought about what you did.”

  


She was right, he never did think about what he was doing. He had only focused on completing his duty for her no matter what it was. He didn’t need to think.

  


But this, this was different. Breaking the law—an ancient law to make sure the animi won’t go mad—for what reason? The law protected the kingdom. It was the reason they had been so prosperous. And she wanted to break it…

  


She whispered, “Just remove the spell Caribou put on me, the one that made it where I can never have animus magic.”

  


Cloudburst looked at his queen, the answer clear to him now. “No.”

Tradition came first, laws that have been tested by time.

  


The queen narrowed her eyes. “You broke the rules for your adopted daughter, why not again?

  


“I did and will take my punishment.” He tilted his head. “But you wish to break the law.”

  


“My word is law.” She straightened herself and held her head high. “Everything you have is mine to command.”

  


“You wanted Caribou to enchant you.” He stared at her.

  


She hissed. “Listen to me or I will kill you.”

  


“You need me for your magic.” 

  


She lashed her tail and then walked up to him. She tapped his chest. “If you do not do it, I won’t kill you.”

  


He blinked at her. “But you have to kill me—”

  
“No, I don’t. I can stick you into a cell, torture you,” she viciously smiled, “But I don’t have to kill you.”

  
“I’m dangerous, you have to kill me.” He frowned at her. 

  


She shook her head as if this was an amusing game she just found. “I know you well enough that magic couldn’t turn you away from your precious duty.” She spat. “Nothing ever did.” 

  


No, he thought, she had to kill him. He broke the laws, he failed his duty. He was a weakness to the kingdom, a threat. He stared down at the ground. His breaths made the tiny snowflakes twirl around in dances. 

  


The queen pressed into him and grinned with wicked delight. “Will you do my spell now?”

  
She doesn’t care, he thought. She doesn’t care about the kingdom. All she wants is the magic, and she doesn’t care what she’ll have to do to get it. She’s beyond reasoning, he knew. He’d seen that look in dragons before, like animi he had to kill. Or was he already going mad?

  
He glanced up at her. She smugly watched him.

  


If he killed her… No, that was madness. The magic was corrupting him. She was ready to go against the laws that protected the kingdom and tradition. If he did kill her the guards would have to kill him. 

  


No, he couldn’t, he couldn’t trust himself. The magic was twisting his mind, making it seem like the only clear choice was to kill the queen of the kingdom he loved. 

  
Yet, what other choice did he have? His queen clearly didn’t care about the kingdom anymore, and no matter what, his duty was to the kingdom. 

  


He looked up at the railing, seeing the brother standing ready with the rock in his claws to break. The rock that contained a counter enchantment to take away all of Cloudburst’s magic. He couldn’t kill the holder of it or use magic on them either. Cloudburst’s eyes trailed over the railing and spotted a pair of tiny horns and eyes peeking through the rails. A dragonet of two or three watched the area below. She stared at him with plain curiosity, and probably would have flown down if she wasn’t hiding since she wasn’t supposed to be there.

  


He sighed at her and then nodded. She probably wouldn’t remember it, but it was the most he could do. 

  


He straightened himself into proper form, tensing as he did and feeling his stomach settle.

  


He glanced at the queen. Her smile had left but the smugness was still there. She nodded at him.

  
He hoped the princess might forgive him one day.

  


He held his claws out to her and summoned the blade. It lay in his claws perfectly balanced and going through the queen’s chest.

  


She paused, glancing down at the blade protruding from her chest. The blade had appeared within her so she hadn’t started bleeding yet. She frowned at it and then glanced up at him. She mumbled. “I—I Why?”

  


“I told you, I’m treasonous my queen.”

  


No one had reacted yet, their voices were too low and for all the other dragons knew, he had dramatically enchanted her. 

  


She glanced up at him with browns drawn, looking nothing like the queen she was. “I wanted to finally… become what I should…”

  


He bowed his head and enchanted the sword to cut her heart and spine. The sword jerked out of his grip and it went to work slicing through her chest in sharp short strokes. 

  


The prince yelled. “Seize him!” and at the same moment Cloudburst felt all his magic flow away. 

  


The queen collapsed to the ground, blue blood spreading out around her. Guards surrounded him in a circle with pointed spears. The prince flew down to his sister and nudged her. “Hoarfrost?”

  


“Mother!” The princess cried and flew down to Hoarfrost. She landed in the middle of the growing puddle of blood and then grabbed her mothers snout. “Mother?”

  


The prince went to grab her, but she collapsed on her mother’s face shaking. The prince paused, and then caught sight of Cloudburst. The prince’s face hardened and he strode around the body and to the ring of guards. The prince waved his wing. “Freeze him.”

  


A hiss began around him and Cloudburst got into form again. He stared at the queen, wishing that it didn't have to end like this, that she didn’t try to break tradition and betray the kingdom. At least, he thought, he have his punishment.

  


The princess wailed, and then the cold hit. It was like a blizzard attacking him on all sides. He couldn’t move from the pressure, and the ice slowly built up over his scales. His scales numbed to the cold in a way he hadn’t felt for ages. 

  


He faintly felt something in front of him stop and he opened his eyes. A crust of ice fell from his eyes and he found the princess standing in front of him. The prince was nowhere to be seen, and the guard had stepped back and stopped his frost breath for fear of freezing the princess.

  


The dragonet glared at him with wet eyes. Blue blood covered her legs and the sides of her face, and it dripped to the snow in tiny droplets. She growled. “I want for you live forever froze in ice! I want you—!” Her voice broke and she started crying. She still tried to continue with her threats, but she kept choking out before she could start.

  


He frowned at the dragonet. He wished he could give her some amount of pity or condolences, but he couldn’t speak, and what words could he say to comfort her?

  


The ice began to seize him even stronger and his vision clouded as ice froze over his eyes. He lost feeling of his body and soon he could only see darkness. A voice somewhere called. “Diamond get away from…”

  


And then only silence and cold remained.

**Author's Note:**

> Constructive criticism is welcome, but I would like to say I won't be editing or fixing this for a long time. I will take it into account in my other stories.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
